Book Reviews & Thoughts

The Fall of Butterflies – Andrea Portes

This takes the classic Great Gatsby-style tragedy and flips it on its head. I loved how Willa adapted and responded to the world of blue bloods. I loved her snark and cynical outlook on life. At times, she was definitely a bit jaded, but I also found myself nodding along in agreement.

Synopsis

Willa Parker, 646th and least popular resident of What Cheer, Iowa, is headed east to start a new life.

Did she choose this new life? No, because that would be too easy—and nothing in Willa’s life is easy. It’s her famous genius mother’s idea to send her to ultra-expensive, ultra-exclusive Pembroke Prep, and it’s only the strength of her name that got Willa accepted in the first place.

But Willa has no intentions of fitting in at Pembroke. She’s not staying long, she decides. Not at this school—and not on this planet. But when she meets peculiar, glittering Remy Taft, the richest, most mysterious girl on campus, she starts to see a foothold in this foreign world—a place where she could maybe, possibly, sort of fit.

When Willa looks at Remy, she sees a girl who has everything. But for Remy, having everything comes at a price. And as she spirals out of control, Willa can feel her spinning right out of her grasp.

In Willa’s secret heart, all she’s ever wanted is to belong. But if Remy, the girl who gave her this world, is slip-sliding away, is Willa meant to follow her down?

Andrea Portes’s incandescent, heartfelt novel explores the meaning of friendship, new beginnings, and the precarious joy and devastating pain of finding home in a place—a person—with wings.

Review

This takes the classic Great Gatsby-style tragedy and flips it on its head. I loved how Willa adapted and responded to the world of blue bloods. I loved her snark and cynical outlook on life. At times, she was definitely a bit jaded, but I also found myself nodding along in agreement.

She handles peer pressure, relationships, and friendships in a completely relatable way. Her fear of ghosts is cute. I loved her father and Ms. Ingall. For all intents and purposes, Willa came from a pretty great place with strong adult figures. They taught her values and helped prevent her from selling herself short.

I never expected to feel sorry for Remy, but that’s how things ended up. And I thought the Milo plotline would get tied up neatly, but it ended up being a loose thread (severed short).

What’s odd is that I started this book with an impending sense of doom. Willa was in such a dark place, and I truly thought this was going to be one of those “suicide-and-the-aftermath” books. I didn’t really understand why she was in that frame of mind, or how it magically evaporated. I didn’t appreciate the way she described her old classmates, but I came to like her by the end of it. And maybe Remy really did save her, even though she wasn’t able to return the favour.